Disposable absorbent articles for receiving and retaining bodily discharges such as urine or feces are well known in the art. Examples of these include disposable diapers, training pants and adult incontinence articles. Typically, disposable diapers comprise a liquid pervious topsheet that faces the wearer's body, a liquid impervious backsheet that faces the wearer's clothing and an absorbent core interposed between the liquid pervious topsheet and the backsheet.
Since their introduction into the market place, disposable diapers have continued to improve regarding comfort, fit and functionalities. While absorption capacity is quite important for diapers, consumers also appreciate products having a soft feel to the touch, especially in these regions of the diaper which directly contact the skin of the wearer, such as the diaper's topsheet. Many attempts have been made to increase the softness of the topsheet, such as by selecting a particular fiber type or by reducing fibers bonding within the material, e.g. a nonwoven material, used for the manufacturing of the topsheet. Typically, fibers' bonding imparts strength to the material. Strength is needed to provide resistance to tearing during use of the diaper and also during the manufacturing process. Unfortunately, when steps are undertaken to increase the softness of the topsheet, such as decreasing the bonding area to increase softness, strength may be adversely affected.
In addition to this technical challenge, i.e. increasing softness without compromising strength, it was observed that consumers tend to prefer diapers having a topsheet with a bonding pattern which is highly distinguishable with naked eyes. Such a highly visible bonding pattern increases the attractiveness of the product and also non-negligibly increases the perception of softness that the consumers may have of the product. Unfortunately, at today's used basis weight, the bonding pattern on the topsheet is barely noticeable by consumers. Whilst increasing the basis weight of the material forming the topsheet may desirably enhance the visual distinction of the bonding pattern, it was found that other physical properties of the topsheet were adversely affected. For instance, in an undesirable way, the liquid retention properties of the topsheet were increased. As well it was found that increasing the bonding area to make it more visible was not desirable since it decreases the softness of the topsheet, contributes to provide a non-desirable plastic feel to the topsheet and increases the risk that the liquid runs off the topsheet. Hence, the negative effects obtained when seeking to increase the visibility of the bonding pattern on the liquid handling properties of the topsheet add even more complexity to the already known technical challenges to create diapers which are soft to the skin, have desired fluid management properties and which are highly attractive to the consumer.
Hence, there is a need for disposable diapers which are soft to the skin, have desired fluid management properties, such as desired fluid permeability and low rewet and which are highly attractive to the consumer.